basketball

To answer guestavo's question the other day - "So what 3* does Beilein get drafted higher than Tyus Battle?" - it appears the first challenger is Ibi Watson, out of Pickerington, OH. Pickerington, of course, is where fellow late blooming, (former) high-school twig Caris LeVert hails from. Watson is 6'4" and allegedly 180 pounds. He recently added an offer from the Hoosiers to go alongside offers from UMass and Dayton.

Also, per Chris Balas on Twitter today, Michigan is taking a look at Amir Coffey, a 4* wing out of the Gopher state. Coffey tore his ACL a little while back, but has still managed to maintain his top 50 ranking on Rivals. Apparently there is pretty significant mutual interest there. Coffey has offers from Arizona, IU, MSU, and Wisconsin, among others. I'm a huge fan of his game. Looks like a future pro.

(Associated Press - 7/13/15) In an unprecedented conference call today, the entire 247 Top 50 of the 2017 men’s basketball recruiting class announced that Michigan would finish second in its recruitment. Speaking for the group, power forward Wendell Carter, Jr. of Atlanta said that Michigan combined “top-flight academics, player development, and recent success” to make it the consensus runner up for the entire Top 50.

“When you look at what they’ve done with guys like Trey Burke, Darius Morris, and Tim Hardaway, you know this is the place you want to very nearly go to school,” said point guard Trevon Duval of Newark, New Jersey. “I mean, in theory, they could take a guy like me and make me a top five pick.”

Today’s announcement came after the players met at various camps and realized they all held Michigan in equal esteem. Shooting Guard D.J. Harvey of Hyattsville, Maryland explained how it happened: “We all got to texting and realized, hey, Michigan and Coach Beilein have sent seven guys to the NBA despite having no McDonald's All-Americans. And it’s a near-Ivy League school too! Who wouldn’t want to strongly consider going there but then pick someone else? We decided we might as well get some of this recruiting craziness over with and announce today that Michigan will be our No. 2.”

When asked for more detail about how they came to almost choose Michigan, players pointed to the academic support provided on campus in Ann Arbor, the “offensive genius” of John Beilein, and even the recent addition of Nike as Michigan’s team apparel provider. A number of parents of the players, who were also available for interviews, said they trusted the integrity of the Michigan coaching staff more than any other staff they had encountered. Said one parent: “Their trustworthiness is a real selling point. I have no problem with my son using Michigan as a back-up.”

When pressed as to why they didn’t want to commit to Michigan, recruits mentioned the recent national success of teams like Duke, the NBA draft success of players from places like Kentucky, the cold weather in Ann Arbor, and in the case of one player, “I just threw a dart at a board, and it hit ‘Gonzaga.’” A handful of players also referenced jobs their parents recently obtained on the campuses of other schools, “transportation alternatives” that were not available at Michigan, and the apparent fact that there are many more lost wallets filled with $100 bills that no one ever claims on some campuses than there are in Ann Arbor.

Is this even fair? How did anyone let this happen? Did anyone even know about this?

Apparently there was something called the World University Games, and the USA team won the gold medal in men's basketball. Apparently that was the first time in years since that has happened. And apparently no one cares, either way.

But really weird: Bill Self was the coach of the USA team this year, andthe team was entirely made of KU players, exceot for one guy from SMU.

So... if Jim Harbaugh did this for football, you can guarantee the SEC would be screaming about violations up the wazoo. And certainly there are limits on basketball teams having foreign travel in the off-season -- it's one time in four years, right -- so did Self just massive end-run the rules?